Monday 26 October 2015

Batty, piggy slippers and the train sweater.

 This little piggy went to market, this little piggy went home, this little piggy went wheeeeeeee..... all the way home! How cute are these piggy baby slippers? So cute I had to make them from a free pattern on the Croby blog. I have made an error on these so I will have to make another pair now. I got them out and gave them to Kenny and he asked "are they for my baby?". Awwww.
I see Croby also has a very cute bat amigurumi pattern too, I must try that one next!

This little amigurumi bat is also from a free pattern by Lucy Ravenscar called Itty Bitty Bat pattern and this is a tiny bat. It has loop feet so can be hung upside down from a stick or cord, you can make bat bunting! Kenny wanted a bat so here he is, and Kenny named him Zen after his best friend!

Here is the jumper I blogged about below being worn by Kenny who is playing with a train set in a train museum, appropriate with his train buttons!

Thursday 22 October 2015

Preemie makes, and WIP piggy slippers

Recently I joined a group on facebook called Knitting & Crochet & Sewing for Lincolnshire Preemie and Angel babies. The members of this group knit, crochet and sew or donate yarn, material and ribbons to make clothes for tiny babies and they supply these in sterile packs to local hospitals, and hospitals further afield.
So I started making tiny hats, so tiny it is hard to imagine, and yet these are for 3lb babies, and the smallest patterns are for 1lb babies. I made 4 from the same pattern in DK and one turned out bigger, must have done an extra stitch somewhere.
I also made a burial gown in 4ply using a cone of acrylic, which is a very sad thing to make but the list of items needed included these. The pink shoe is for my granddaughter, it is WIP and will be a little piggy slipper when finished from a free pattern on the Croby blog - link in the sidebar.

At the moment I wonder if I am talking to myself here, I realised that although a lot of people seem to have been to look at my crochet blog I don't have any followers, but I also realised I had not added the means to follow. It is of course still possible to follow without buttons and gadgets, but I have added them all now - I wait hopefully for a follower......

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Little boy blue - and pink, purple, tan, ivory, turquoise......

This is a 4 year old size jumper from an Inside Crochet pattern. The collar was also supposed to be the darker blue but I didn't quite have enough of it. I was thankful when I managed to complete both sleeves without running out of it. The yarn is King Cole Cotton Soft DK. I added stripes of various colours, and only added two stripes of the dark blue to try and save enough to finish. I hope the striped collar looks OK, can't do anything about it except make it all one colour maybe light blue.
I bought train buttons to finish it, I hope they will last and not scratch.

Thursday 15 October 2015

Crocheted hottie cover.

I remember I was injured when we last went on holiday to Devon, but I can't remember how I was injured now (I get so many injuries and aches and pains - I forget specifics). Anyway the advice I was given was to use hot and cold treament on it, and in a hotel it was a little tricky. We took the sports therapy ice packs and kept them in the hotel kitchen freezer, asking for them nightly - they were never very frozen and it turned out that the staff thought they had to go in the fridge not freezer for a couple of nights! For the heat my GP suggested a hot water bottle, which I no longer owned so had to go out and buy one, and while we were there I crocheted a cover for it.

I think if I did this again I would make it bottom opening, and make a hole for the neck to go through around which I could have crocheted a collar. However the case will pull up to cover the neck of the bottle, but it doesn't stay put! I added a flower and button, well you have to really don't you! Made in Aran Marriner's 400g which is 25% wool I think, and acrylic.

Crocheted 12 pointed star blanket for a girl.

I made this 12 pointed star blanket, again from Inside Crochet issue 47, for my Granddaughter who is due early November. I don't like it as much as the first one, maybe the striped yarn was a mistake as it vanishes into the other colours, or maybe I needed to totally different contrasting colours so the striped yarn was in distinct rows. It is made with DK baby yarn, and some normal DK from Wilkinsons in dark teal, I think that is too dark a shade of teal really. Ah well, you hook and learn!

If you go down to the woods today, you'll never believe your eyes.....

Look at these little cuties! I didn't make them, I bought them in the RUH (Royal United Hospital in Bath) where they sit in a box full of their friends in the Oncology outpatients department - which is A12 if you want to pop in and buy one or two.

 Minimum donation to buy one is £1, and the funds go to the Forever Friends hospital fund raising appeal.

I know someone who loves green, and maybe his new little sister will like orange!

I asked if I could make some of these teddy bears, but they are all made by one lady to raise funds but I was told I was welcome to make something new, and I do have a couple of ideas rattling around my head.

There are also hand made cards for sale for 30p each, which is a lot less than mine go for but then I put a lot of time into mine and materials.

Blast from the past - or the future?

 There are lots of magazine patterns giving new ways of making granny squares, or granny garments and one I saw recently was granny bunting. Well I made this granny triangle blanket without a pattern back in the early 1980s for one of my boys, and after repairing some of the joining seams it is as good as it was back then. I have it on top of the duvet on my side of the bed, along with another blanket - I feel the cold!
This is all made in 4 ply acrylic.

Nothing in fashion is actually new, it is all recycled from the past!

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Fiber Flux: Red Heart Mixology Giveaway + Review!

It's CazzyTime!: Fiber Flux: Red Heart Mixology Giveaway + Review!: Fiber Flux: Red Heart Mixology Giveaway + Review! : Have you tried Mixology by Red Heart Yarns yet?  Mixology is a fabulous new yarn collect...



Twiddle Muff

 When I first heard of Twiddle Muffs we had been visiting Mother in Law who was in an interim care bed in a dementia home following a stay in hospital. It was a temporary arrangement to rehabilitate her back home, which is where she is now. Some of the residents of the home could probably do with a Twiddle Muff to keep them occupied, and I know there are hospitals putting out calls for them but none locally as far as I know.

Most Twiddle Muff (or Fiddle Muff as my Dad called them) patterns are knitted but I came across this free pattern available from Ravelry. I meant to get round to making one or two, and then I thought of my aunt who has dementia and is still living at home with carers and equipment. So I made her a Twiddle Muff based on the free pattern but I made it with 6 more rows to make it longer, and added fancy edges when I joined the two parts.
The picture above shows the undecorated muff. I added bobbles for interest as suggested in the pattern.
 This is the inside, again I added some bobbles but no decoration.

 Then you just add whatever will make it interesting, lace, ribbon, zips, buttons, beads - what you have!
I took it over and gave it to her, and later when my parents sat with her she wouldn't give it to my Dad to look at, so I think it is a hit! She is fascinated with the crochet flower, which someone else did and I thought it was a great idea. She is trying to detach it from what I have been told. No idea if she will use the zip, but if she does I put some ribbon with cats on underneath so it won't catch and she might look at them.
The yarn I used is Marriner Aran acrylic with wool that comes in 400g balls.


New blog and new jacket.

My Cazzytime blog was started when I got into paper crafting, and the paper crafting blog world (which took off like a storm when before it had only been happening on forums) and when I began crocheting again around 4 years ago after a long gap (I crocheted from aged 11 to my mid thirtys - then I started working full time and just didn't have the time). What started me crocheting again? Well I took early retirement from the Civil Service and I became a grandmother.

The Cazzytime blog had got a long crochet bloglist which I can't think is helpful, you have to go right down to the bottom of the blog to find it, and it is growing all the time, so I will put it on here and it will be visible.

I am starting off with one of my most recent projects, I will add the rest of them but I haven't decided how yet, maybe all in one long post, or maybe a separate page with links to the post in Cazzytime.

This jacket is made with James C Brett Lakeland chunky yarn, the pattern is from Inside Crochet Issue 47 which you may still be able to purchase electronically. The sheet you see with the photo is the errata sheet. I have learnt that it is best to check the Inside Crochet web site before starting any pattern, there are lots of errata on many patterns - but they haven't included everything as I found to my cost with a pattern in the same issue!

The jacket is originally worked in plain yarn, and it has fir trees round the yoke which I decided not to do. I had thought of working sheep instead of trees which is why I picked black and ivory for my contrast colours.
When I looked at the details of the trees it was obvious that the increases were part of the trees! The trees were quite complex, there were decreases and increases on the same row and different stitches that made them pop. I didn't like the look of them in the photo and didn't think they would go with my main yarn. So I had to work out the total increases per row then distribute them round the yoke so I increased it and ended up with the correct number of stitches. I did try out a sheep sample but I couldn't get it to be sheep shaped. I thought maybe I can add sheep later...
 This is the finished yoke, I started on a sleeve to make sure it was going to be big enough for my fat arms and I added six stitches, my arms are out of proportion to my body which makes clothes buying a nightmare and I hope when I lose the rest of my excess weight they will slim down and not end up with great flaps of loose skin - I am dreading that! Anyway I digress - I could see the effect of the yarn was different to the yoke, much more subtle blending of colours, the yarn is quite blocky and the stripes are really defined - can you see the difference?
 So I could see a travelling seam, I started it at the underarm and it ended up on the top side of the sleeve, which made the next few rows a bit of a challenge because they included decreases and I had to work out where to put them. After asking advice on the Crochet UK and the Chatty Knitters and Crocheters facebook groups where a couple of people said it looks fine (really, I can see it?) and one helpful person said if you turn the sleeve at every row start (it was worked continuously in rounds) the seam will stay put. In all my years of crochet I had never realised that one small tip, and when I was trying to explain the solution to another facebook pal and looking at the pattern to tell her what that said I spotted that one little word "turn" which I had missed in my enthusiasm to complete the sleeve, and even if I spotted it (or maybe I did spot it) I would have ignored it not realising the significance.
I began the second sleeve, turning at each new row and, guess what, the sleeve seam stayed put where it should be! So first sleeve was "frogged" (this is a fairly new term to me and means unpicked, or unravelled again - rip it, rip it - ribbit, ribbit - that is what a frog says). I started the sleeve again later.
 This photo shows that when I continued with the body, which was worked all in one piece, I was getting the same distinct strip effect as the yoke. I had expected that with the sleeve sections now taken out and the resulting shorter rows that made up the body that this wouldn't happen. So I had to decide if the sleeves would look silly against the body if I carried on and thought they would. So I frogged the body then split it into back and two fronts, of course that meant I would have side seams but the overall effect is much better and the stripes on the yoke don't look out of place.
I made the body a little longer than the pattern, and the sleeves had to be longer because I have long arms.
 This is me (badly needing a haircut) wearing the finished jacket, after a battle with the buttons I chose. I spent ages choosing buttons, it was between some art deco looking black and white ones with squares and lines on them, or these marbled green ones that pick out the green in the yarn. When I tried to sew them on the yarn would not go through the buttons, I found out that the red in some King Cole Riot DK that was the exact colour of the red on the button band, even then the needle I was using wouldn't go through and I had to change it down for a narrower needle with a big eye.
I haven't made any sheep to appliqué onto the yoke, and maybe it looks better without, what do you think? Another option was to make white Irish roses, but that might look silly.
I have worn the jacket twice and got a few compliments, I am very pleased with it, maybe I will make another one.

I have managed to add links to all of my old crochet posts below this post, had to fiddle the date on this post to make it appear after the rest. 

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Dog Sweater



It's CazzyTime!: Dog Sweater:  Alfie dog is old and suffers from arthritis, and we tend to leave his hair to grow in cold weather, however he now hates being groomed du...

Chevron cotton cardigan

It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #308 D for do something!: I've not joined in for a couple of weeks, not since just before Shaun had his surgery. The operation was sucessful, he is home re...

New yarn and child's jacket









It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #305:  I haven't joined in for weeks now due to the numerous hospital appointments, tests, scans etc for hubby who had a successful operatio...

Star blanket and ruffle scarf



It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #301:  I promised I would be here for #300 and I just couldn't do it, it seems like just when things are getting you down life comes along a...

Crochet Rosalind cardigan





Unless I lose a lot more weight soon I will be frogging this and making something else, also thinking adding buttons might help (only might!).

It's CazzyTime!: My Rosalind cardigan - at last! (and despite the p...: Some time ago I decided to make a jumper that featured in an Inside Crochet magazine, it was called the Torquay jumper and was a pretty lacy...

Crocheted monster hats and mittens

Hat 2 and mittens photos on blog post (click on link).


It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #292 (on Thursday, whoops): Sorry peeps, I know it is Thursday therefore some of you will ignore me completely.  Update on Mother in Law: she is still in hospita...

Pink, fluffy, shiny, chunky, crochet jumper.

Eeek!

It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #290 Christmas Eve: Happy WOYWW peeps who love to peep! I have been slightly bemused by the embedded word verification thing that has appeared in comments on bl...

Crochet WIP

It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #289: It's official desk nosy day today, just about still Wednesday! This is not on my desk but I was so amazed by the size of it compared ...

Crochet WIP

It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #288: Eeek, it is Wednesday again and time for a nosy, and I know I still owe a few people visits from last week! This is my work in progress...

Crochet hat, scafatti and fingerless glove sets.









It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #287: Edit: I just remembered I better mention that I am finally over the virus which lasted exactly three weeks! Thanks for all of your well wish...

Doilies crocheted a long time ago



It's CazzyTime!: WOYWW #276: Having got back into the peeping activity that is WOYWW recently I was unable to take part in this weekly delight of snooping last week beca...